Small volume agricultural crops need to be harvested similar to a higher volume or a mass produced volume of crops. Unfortunately, most of the harvesting tools are not viable or economical for the harvesting of certain spices and herbs, such as for example, rosemary, mint, oregano, basil, cilantro, medicinal herbs, and the like. It is often necessary to hand trim with a scissor (or pick) the flowers and plants associated with these crops, especially when smaller volumes are produced.
Hand trimming crops often involves using a scissor to cut, rather than tear, portions of the plant while manipulating the crops. This is a labor intensive process that can become manually taxing over time as more product is handled and trimmed. To facilitate the process, many tools and devices have been developed to automatically trim plants, for example, separating the leaves from the stems. One particularly effective automatic plant trimmer is described in International Patent Application WO 2013/090779, filed Dec. 14, 2012, titled PLANT TRIMMING APPARATUS AND METHODS OF USING THE SAME, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein as if set out in full. WO 2013/090779 provides a relatively large container and a series of grates, blades, and fans to trim the product. A unique bagging system allows the constituent components of the plants being harvested to be separated. The plant trimmer of WO 2013/090779 is not a hand trimming device, however.
Automatic trimmers, such as the above described automatic trimmer, are often expensive and more effective at higher volumes of plant harvesting. While the above described plant trimmer is effective, hand trimming of plants is still gentler on the plants and more cost effective for lower volumes.
Accordingly, there is a need for a handheld automatic trimmer that is more cost effective for harvesting plants.